Simple Country Furniture Projects in 1/12 Scale [Paperback]

Fifteen original wood-based projects introduce miniaturists to the charm of old-fashioned country furniture. All appear in the popular 1/12 scale with illustrated easy-to-follow instructions, along with background history, so doll house owners can tailor their pieces to suit a particular period or region. Because the projects are arranged in the order of difficulty, crafters will learn skills progressively and gain confidence as they go along. No special experience or expertise is required to make such traditional items as a Dough-Kneading Board, Kitchen Table, Washstand, Dowry Chest, Settle, Cradle, and Chest of Drawers. They' ll enhance any doll' s house.

Having collected country antiques to furnish my own house it seemed obvious to me that I could combine my interest in vernacular furniture with my love of all things miniature, and then share this with other minaturists who enjoy furnishing their own dollshouses.

Antique country furniture - once made by local craftsmen and journeymen - is becoming increasingly popular in our homes. Seduced by the unique, attractive looks that can be found, many people are inspired to renovate older pieces, and so add variety to mass-produced modern furniture.In this engaging book, Alison White introduces the miniaturist to the fascinating subject of country furniture with fifteen original, wood-based 1/12 scale projects. As well as illustrated, easy-to-follow instructions, the projects provide background history, allowing doll's house owners to tailor their furniture to suit a particulare era or region.The projects are set out in increasing order of difficulty, so that anyone trying all 15 will learn new skills progressively and gain new confidence in their abilities - no special expertise or previous experience is required. As stand-alone items, these designs will enhance any modern dolls' houses, as a complete set, they provide an excellent base for a delightful country cottage.

Having been originally trained to drill and fill children's teeth, moving in to the world of the miniaturist posed few problems when working with the small scale used in dollshouses! Now I have taken early retirement from the Health Service I am able to concentrate on this absorbing hobby and to share my skills with others who enjoy the challenge of collecting or making their own miniature world.

I first became interested in antique country furniture when I moved to Northern Ireland in 1980. The limited interest in the subject at that time meant it was possible to collect pieces easily and quite cheaply. There was usually a story attached to the individual items and sometimes, if I was lucky, information about where they had come from and the uses that had been made of them. Rather than the kind of furniture that would have been found in big houses, antique country furniture is the sort of everyday item that would have been affordable to the greater number of families. As such, it gives an insight into the social history of times both within living memory and long ago.
Rarely mass-produced, this type of furniture was made either by the householder, a local craftsman or a journeyman (a travelling carpenter, who worked in exchange for some food and a bed for the night). More often than not, country furniture was made to fit a specific place in the house or cottage and was, therefore, hardly ever produced in sufficient numbers to ensure matching sets! Pieces were generally made using whatever materials were available, which might have meant recycling. Sections of cartwheels could be used for the rockers on a cradle, for example, and wood washed up on the shore was also useful.

This one-off nature ensures uniqueness, but also suitability for the job required. Each piece would have had to be practical and may have had mutliple uses. For example, a settle bed often doubled as both a day seat, an extra bed and sometimes even a play pen for a child. Many children may well have learned to walk within the safe confines of a settle with a convenient side to hold onto. Even a single chair, laid on its back, would have been used as a ‘parking’ place for a small child.
Despite their ad hoc construction, country furniture items are now becoming increasingly collectable and eminently suitable for either a town house or a country cottage, blending equally well within either modern or period décor. Indeed many of the projects featured in this book are based on pieces of furniture from my own home. These would have been in regular use throughout Great Britain and Ireland, but similar histories of vernacular furniture can be found in Switzerland, Germany, the Scandanavian countries, and many Eastern European countries, as well as in the well-known style of Shaker furniture found in the United States.
It is frequently possible to ascribe some pieces to their country of origin due to the various styles employed by the journeymen at the time. An example of this is the Irish table, which usually has a double stretcher underneath. Wales is synonymous with dressers, while items commonly found in the south of England include chests of drawers and tall kitchen dressers. Scotland is famous for large chests of drawers.
Country furniture is frequently made of a mixture of pine, oak, ash, beech or other locally grown wood. Inevitably this suffered considerable damage over the years from woodworm and damp. As a consequence, the practice of using "boot" or "sledge" feet to counteract the damp was introduced. As soon as the feet started to rot away they were replaced with new ones, prolonging the life of the item of furniture. Many pieces have been repaired in this way, as it was necessary to replace the legs of chairs, beds and other items, that had become damp on beaten earth floors or worn on hard flagstones.
While today the fashion is to strip furniture back to bare wood, in its original state it would have been painted, often with several coats of paint one on top of another obscuring some of the decoarative work. In Ireland, for instance, a home would have been given a spring clean and its furniture a fresh coat of paint whenever the householder was preparing to play host, such as when a priest came to administer Mass.